Netflix (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
#Roommates, following last week’s announcement that transgender employees and supporters would stage a walkout to protest Dave Chappelle’s stand-up special ‘The Closer’ the moment finally came earlier today—and in addition to calling him out once again, a list of demands drove their point home. The organizer of the Netflix walkout spoke to the crowd of protestors and slammed Dave Chappelle for allegedly refusing to meet, but it’s the long list of demands the protestors have for Netflix that signal the backlash is far from over.
@Deadline reports, Ashlee Marie Preston, the organizer of today’s Netflix walkout did not mince words when it came to openly criticizing Dave Chappelle to a crowd of more than 100 protestors and supporters of the award-winning comedian. “I’ve invited Dave Chappelle to have transformative dialogue with us…and he has made it clear that it is not of interest to him. This isn’t cancel culture, but an avoidance of accountability. Dave Chappelle doesn’t get to take the light from this moment.” However, it’s the list of demands that protestors want Netflix to fulfill that also grabbed attention.
One of the demands includes requesting that all imagery of Dave Chappelle be immediately removed from Netflix offices, including murals, photos, room names, etc. Additionally, they want Netflix to put a disclaimer before ‘The Closer’ saying it contains transphobic language, misogyny, homophobia and hate speech. Also, immediately hire transgender executives within the company in leadership roles and demanded that Netflix invest in transgender and non-binary content to be available on the streaming service. There are several other items on the list that supporters of the walkout believe will ultimately cause Netflix to acknowledge that the special has hurt the LGBTQ+ community.
As we previously reported, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has made it clear multiple times that not only is the company standing firmly behind Dave Chappelle in support of his creativity and freedom of speech—he also repeatedly stated that ‘The Closer’ would not be removed from the streaming service.
Meanwhile, shortly after the backlash, Dave Chappelle addressed the controversy to a sold-out crowd, saying “If this is what being cancelled is like, I love it.”
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